ramadan

Today’s post comes from Tarana Khan an expat mom living in the UAE. She blogs at Sand In My Toes, where you can drop by to read more of her parenting and other adventures! You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram. Tarana grew up in the Emirates and has plenty of Ramadan memories. One of the things I noticed when I was visiting Dubai this May was the lack of traditional Emirati cuisine. Fear not, Tarana to the rescue!

I grew up in the United Arab Emirates, and have spent many seasons of Ramadan here. At home, my mom always made traditional Iftar dishes from back home in India, such as pakoras, chaat, and samosas. We didn’t know any of the local families personally, but every Ramadan, almost every local household sent out Iftar dishes to their neighbours.

Today’s post is from Marie-Claude Leroux of Marie’s Pastiche. She is a French-Canadian blogger living in Nova Scotia and writes about exploring world cultures with kids. This year her family took on the mission of learning about Lebanon, making her addition of lentil soup for this project a perfect fit! You can connect with her on her website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Our family has been virtually exploring a country (or region) and its culture every year for ten years. This year we headed to the Middle East to spend some time exploring Lebanon. Since we know little about Islam, this has been a great opportunity to learn more about the religion, and by extension Ramadan.

Today is the first recipe day for the around the Islamic world food and travel extravaganza. Todays’ post comes from Becky of Kid World Citizen. She’s a mom, blogger, and amazing woman! Enjoy today’s post from Indonesia.

Indonesia is not a country we hear a lot about, yet it is the fourth largest country in the world after China, India, and the US. In addition, the country with the largest Muslim population is Indonesia. My kids and I wanted to learn a little more about Indonesia, so we took out both nonfiction books and some funny folktales. Then I asked friends from Indonesia for a typical recipe to break the fast in Ramadan. Kolak pisang is an Indonesian dessert, especially popular for Iftar during the month of Ramadan. Kids and adults enjoy the sweet, fruit-infused syrup- the coconut and vanilla don’t overpower the banana and sweet potatoes, but give them the perfect tropical touch.

1) First, peel the sweet potatoes and yucca (we didn’t have yucca at home and so we omitted it). Cut them into bite-sized cubes.

2) Fill the pot with the sweet potatoes, yucca, and white sugar, and add enough water to cover them fully. Gently boil them until they are soft and the liquid has formed a syrup.

3) While cooking, have your kids peel the bananas and cut them into slices.

4) When the sweet potatoes are tender, lower the heat and add the coconut milk, sliced bananas, salt, and vanilla. It’s best not to boil the mixture, but just slowly cook the bananas.

Serve while warm!

We hope you enjoyed this treat. My kids absolutely loved it, and asked if we could make it again. Desserts are an easy way to win over picky kids and encourage them to try new tastes and textures- all 5 of mine love the kolak pisang!

Mhncha means “snake” in Arabic but there is no snake meat in these cookies. They are named for the shape. Typically this cookie is made in a very large size, enough to feed several dozen people. It’s very popular for weddings and other special occasions. A few months ago when I took a cookie class at the Amal Center, we made a smaller version of this popular sweet. They’re more manageable than their big “sister” and perfect for serving or gifting during Ramadan.

These are a bit time consuming to make so be sure you have a comfortable work space. You can make your own warka or buy pre-made phyllo dough. I suggest buying phyllo as this is the most difficult and time consuming step.

Malika, who showed us how to make Moroccan pastries is an expert warka maker, and believe me this truly is an art. A towa (slightly curved metal pan) is placed over an open flame and is heated until very hot. The warka dough is very wet. Carefully but quickly it is smoothed onto the towa to create a thin, flat sheet of dough. It cooks very quickly. As soon as the edges start to pull up, it’s removed from the heat and brushed with oil. It’s important that the warka is not cooked completely through as it needs to remain pliable to use.

Want an easier way? Check out my gluten-free version that’s cooked in a skillet and applied using a clean paintbrush.

Once the sheets are ready it’s time to start making the cookies.

Ingredients

1 kg almond flour

150g butter

250g powdered sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch of grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp orange blossom water

1 package phyllo dough

1 egg (eggwash)

Directions

Mix all of the ingredients together (except for the phyllo) and form into a paste. It shouldn’t crumble. If it does, add more butter so that it holds together.

Fold a sheet of warka or phyllo in half and cut into strips about 2 inches wide. You will need to move very quickly once you start to make the cookies so don’t cut all of the dough at one time. Cut the sheets as you go so that it doesn’t dry out.

For the cookies, one strip of dough should be enough. Roll a tube of the filling paste so that it is slightly smaller than the warka. You need to have space on the ends of the cookie so that you can seal it properly. Begin by placing the tube of filling at the bottom of the rectangle of warka and tightly (but carefully) wrapping the filling into the warka. Don’t pull it so tight that the warka breaks. If it does, discard the warka and start over.

You can see from this picture that the cookies are wrapped securely but there’s still a little wiggle room. Once this is done it’s time to make the shape. Start with the end that has the least amount of warka hanging over the edge and fold in. Keep winding to form a coil.

This step also must be done tightly but carefully. The exterior shouldn’t crack. If it does, start over. When you reach the end, take the tail of warka and brush onto the cookie with an egg wash to seal. Set onto a baking pan and finish the rest of the cookies.

Preheat oven to 400F. Brush all of the cookies with an eggwash and bake until just golden brown on top, approximately 8-10 minutes. Mhncha can be dusted with powdered sugar and crushed almonds or glazed with a thin layer of honey.

They are delicious warm out of the oven but also good at room temperature. Bss’ha!

I’m two weeks into my cookie making class at the Amal Center in Marrakech and have several different cookies to share. Moroccan cookies are intricate, they’re all made by hand and there are few short cuts. But, there is one positive – several of the different shapes all have the same exterior pastry and interior filling. So, you only have to make these once and then you can make the shapes that you want.

This cookie is a variation of the ka’ab gazelle, one of the most well known Moroccan pastries. I find these are a little bit easier to shape and more forgiving than the others. They don’t really have a name but I call them Moroccan pouch or purse cookies. Even though they are easier than ka’ab, they still take some practice!

Tools needed:

Pastry brush

rib edged pastry cutter

Pasta rolling machine (you can use a rolling pin but it’s difficult to get pastry thin enough)

baking sheet

Ingredients for Ka’ab Gazelle Pastry

2 bowls flour

1 egg

1 tea cup vegetable oil

2 Tbsp powdered sugar

1 teaspoons butter softened

1/2 tea cup orange blossom water

Directions for Ka’ab Gazelle Pastry

Begin by mixing the flour, powdered sugar in a bowl with the softened butter and eggs. Use your hands to mix everything. Slowly pour in the oil while continuing to mix everything together. Once incorporated the dough will barely hold together when squeezed. Very slowly add the orange blossom water while kneading. The final dough should be pliable and elastic, somewhat similar to a pasta dough.

Filling for Ka’ab Gazelle

(the ingredients here were a little more precise!)

1 kg almond flour

150g butter

250g powdered sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch of grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp orange blossom water

Mix all of the ingredients together to form a paste that sticks together when squeezed.

Before you shape the pastry you’ll also need to crack an egg to serve as an eggwash.

To start you’ll want to run a small amount of the pastry dough through the pasta machine several times to make it as thin as possible without it breaking. You may need to experiment a few times to find the right balance. The next step is to cut out a square approximately 1 1/2″ by 1 1/2″ with the ribbed pastry cutter. The size of the square really won’t matter, just try to be consistent – remember these cookies are meant to be eaten in 1-2 bites.

Roll a ball of the filling to fit in the middle of the square leaving 1/2″ around the edges free.

Pull up the edges that are across from each other, placing a dab of eggwash on the interior corners to seal them. Pull up the opposite corners and do the same. Pinch the edges outward, it will look similar to the inside of a seam on your clothing. Gently push in the dough so that it creates a triangle shape. If the edges aren’t holding you can use a bit extra eggwash inside to seal the seams.

If you’ve made these and the ka’ab gazelle you can bake them all together. Place the cookies on an oiled baking pan and put into a 350F/175C oven for 10-12 minutes. The cookies will be a very pale brown when cooked through. They should not be crunchy.

When your cookies are all done you should of course enjoy over glasses of Moroccan Mint Tea! Bssha! (to your health!)

Thursday afternoon the house became quite all of a sudden, except for the occasional whirl of the food processor I didn’t here noise from the kids. As most parents know this is never a good sign. Ever. For a second I assumed they had gone outside to play but every now and then I’d hear a phrase spoken. When I finally got up to look downstairs (we live in a traditional style Moroccan home with 4 floors and an open courtyard in the middle) I saw this;

Grandma had gotten the boys to help with Ramadan preparations by shelling kilos of almonds. It’s some task as they need to be boiled then cooled, the skins removed and then cleaned again. Finally they’re fried, cooled, and ground almost to flour. Some Moroccan families outsource all the prep work now, they buy cookies, or have someone come to the house to make them. They might rely on the dry packages of harira for the nightly soup. They maybe purchase briouats from someone else they trust. Not in our house. My mother in law set out this day to make sellou the flour/nut/spicey sweet mixture served for every iftar. I don’t even know how much she made but it was a lot!

I’ve never been in Morocco during Ramadan, hard to imagine considering we’ve been coming for the last ten years. In some ways I am grateful for that and in other ways I always wondered what I was missing. I struggle with Ramadan, the very concept of it. I attribute a lot of this to not being raised as a Muslim. I didn’t even know what Ramadan was before becoming Muslim! Every year in the US I tried to feel the excitement my husband felt. I tried to make it special for him and for the kids – because it is supposed to be special. It’s one of those things I hear people talk about with this sense of amazement and magic – like when you give birth. But I feel deflated, just like I did after giving birth! Maybe it just takes me longer to come around than most people. I don’t feel any closer to Allah, I feel hungry and crabby, pressed for time, and in the summer months I feel like we’re missing out on the fun. I don’t want my kids to feel this way. I want them to feel the same excitement as their dad.

So I’m hoping this year I’ll feel different. I’m hopeful that being in a country where everyone around me is aware of and celebrating will bring some of the excitement. Even though I’ve not yet gone to a mosque here, I hope we can go to Kotoubia and pray tahraweh. I want to stand amongst thousands of people and feel the energy. I hope that when the cannons sound at the end of the fast, there’s happiness and not just a mad dash to shove down some briouats and suck down some water. I hope the streets come alive at night. I hope that this sparks a little something inside me to see Ramadan through the eyes of my husband and feel more than contempt in my heart.

The part of Ramadan that does get me excited is getting ready. I love planning and preparing! I haven’t done much cooking to prepare because I just don’t have the space I once did. We’re also leaving for the US in the beginning of July so the kids and I will only be here for about 1 week of Ramadan. If you’re preparing too I’ve gathered some links and ideas to help you out.

Mental Preparation

Watch the six-part video series I created last year to prepare for Ramadan. From the home, to children, your kitchen, the workplace, general background on Ramadan, and getting spiritually prepared you’ll learn from six amazing sisters about all of these areas! Ramadan Revealed.

Ramadan Morning Gift Baskets – Love this idea from Amnah!

Another great idea a 30 Days of Ramadan Balloon Countdown

The Food

Be sure you’re follow @SaffronRoadFood and @WholeFoods on Twitter. There will be a Ramadan centered tweet chat on July 17th beginning at 6pm Eastern. I’ll share more details with you as I get them! You’ll also want to check all your retailers that sell Saffron Road products because they’ll be on sale in all Whole Foods and in some other retailers like Target and Kroger.

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Hello!

Amanda is a freelance writer, entrepreneur, speaker, and hungry world traveler behind this site that has been helping curious, food-loving travelers plan experiences around Morocco and the world for the past 15 years.